16 July 2009

Much as already been made about Brown’s election coordinator Douglas Alexander’s interview in the New Statesman where he said this about the non-election of 2007:

There was clearly briefing against me but the task in those circumstances is not to exacerbate those briefings but to get on with the job.

However, this is possibly more significant when he was asked if the leadership issue is resolved:

I would expect that we have seen the end of it. But, ultimately, the responsibility as to whether we spend the next few months turning inwards rather than outwards and engaging with the electorate doesn’t simply rest with people responsible for the election, or cabinet ministers, or government ministers.

This bit is intriguing:

Instead, it is for the Labour movement as a whole to find “the resolve not to hand over power to a party that I believe remains untested, and which remains outside the mainstream solutions that I believe the country needs”.

What does he mean by ‘finding the resolve’? It is rather an ambiguous statement. He could have said categorically that Brown will lead Labour at the next election, but didn't.

Is Alexander suggesting that the Labour movement can find the resolve with Brown or with a new leader? What he says leaves the speculation about whether Brown will lead Labour at the election hanging in the air.